Why Are Animals Included in the Study of Psychology?
Question by Squall_22: Why are animals included in the study of psychology?
First correct and satisfying scientific answer gets 10pts
Best answer:
Answer by callipygia
Animal Research Helps Explain the Central Nervous System
Although experiences in the world shape behavior, understanding how the nervous system works is critical to a complete understanding of behavior, including behaviors that are problematic in mental illness, memory disorders, and drug addiction. Much of what we know about the relationships among anatomy, physiology, and behavior has come from animal research.
Animal research has been the major contributor to our knowledge of basic learning processes and motivational systems, such as hunger, thirst, and reproduction.
Animal research has provided critical information about the sensory processes of vision, taste, hearing, and pain perception.
Studies of animal cognition have provided a comparative and ecological perspective on issues of the mind and intelligence. Other studies have shown how sensory functions and levels of cognition can depend critically on early experience.
Through research with animals, we have learned about modes of adaptation to change, including evolution, development, and all types of learning. The research has told us about important connections between stress and disease and has suggested psychological interventions for coping with stress more effectively.
Animal research has been used to identify and refine the basic behavioral principles that have led to the development of effective methods for promoting learning and self-reliance in a wide variety of populations.
Animal research has contributed also to treatment of difficult clinical problems such as controlling self- injurious behavior in autistic children and adults and teaching children who have been tube-fed since birth to eat normally.
Animal behavioral research has been fundamental to understanding the range of behavioral effects of psychoactive drugs and environmental toxicants.
Etc…etc…etc…
Add your own answer in the comments!
Man gets probation for beating drug dealer
Filed under: principles of drug addiction treatment
His wife sat in the front row and quietly sobbed with relief. … He's a poster child of what the Gladue sentencing principles — guidelines to address the disproportionate number of First Nations people incarcerated — aim to accomplish. … Conflict …
Read more on London Free Press
A History of Electroconvulsive Treatment in Mental Illness
Filed under: principles of drug addiction treatment
3) ECT, quickly replaced Metrazol, not for the principle of electricity but for the "triumph of the principle of convulsive therapy" (p.32). … ICT was much used in schizophrenia but the first antipsychotic drugs in the 1950s made it useless. … The …
Read more on Metapsychology
Award-Winning Documentary: Drug War Continues to Target the Poor
Filed under: principles of drug addiction treatment
In his exploration of the systemic and human damage inflicted by the “war on drugs,” powerful personal testimonies come from every perspective: dealers, ex-addicts, inner city NARCs, Main Street sheriffs, and the families caught between. However …
Read more on IVN News